Salman Latif is a software engineer with a specific interest in social media, big data and real-world solutions using the two.Other than that, he is a bit of a gypsy. He also writes in his own blog. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter .

Google has launched server-side encryption for its cloud storage service, the Google Drive, bolstering the security of the service.

Recently, we have seen a spate of articles rightfully decrying Google’s violations of user privacy rights. Apparently, to make up for all the PR damage that has done, Google has now rolled out server-side encryption for its cloud storage service.

Google’s cloud storage service, Google Drive, has been around for a while. The storage service already packs a number of security measures to ensure the safety of the data uploaded by the users. However, one of the key features that were lacking was the server-side encryption of the user data.

Now, Google has finally launched server-side encryption for Google Drive. This means that any data that is uploaded by the user will now be encrypted on the server end before uploaded to the cloud. Google has assured that with this new feature, the speed of uploading data wouldn’t be affected in any way.

If you have been authorized, as a reader, to access any given data, Google Drive will simply decrypt it instantly for you. Moreover, the service will also be encrypting the older data files which have been uploaded in the past. But that is likely going to take a few months.

The official blog post of the cloud storage service reveals the encryption method that is being used in these words, “Each Cloud Storage object’s data and metadata is encrypted under the 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-128), and each encryption key is itself encrypted with a regularly rotated set of master keys. Of course, if you prefer to manage your own keys then you can still encrypt data yourself prior to writing it to Cloud Storage.”

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